Serious cost issue with the car
Turbo Mini Forums

Having just bought a house and am feeling very skint and in debt, its dawned on me that my daily isnt very fuel efficient. I do about 32mile each way to work, with taxi excursions at about 10-15miles each normally several times a week. This normally totals upto 400 miles a week-ish not including excursions etc.

My daily is a focus lx 1.6 petrol which was a hand-down/inheritance from my mum so i know the history well. However, im struggling even when taking it rediculously easy to keep it over 37mpg and is hence costing me nearly 45 a week in petrol.

I've been tempted by regestering with the customs folk for running a second diesiel car on chip fat (probs be smaller car at that), but the extra cost of running a second car nearly outweighs the benefits. I cant afford to drop down a car size and i im reluctant to get rid of a car of which i know the history so well.

What do i do?

Get a bigger and cheaper diesel car and run it on chipfat, getting rid of the focus?
Convert the focus to LPG?
Stop being a pranny and live with the fuel cost?

Or can someone else suggest a better alternative?

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

If you're struggling with a car that does 37 to the gallon, maybe you should sell the focus, use the money to pay off some of the debt and buy something like a 400 quid 1400cc escort - which will do the same(ish) mpg, but at least you will have less debt.

I've never before, heard anyone complaining about 37mpg not being a good-enough fuel economy!!!! LOL!

yup, 37 isnt bad at all!

other option is to go for something like a tdi golf and ditch the focus.

i'm lucky to get 25mpg!!! and i drive 20mile each way to work + all the other fooking about. somehow managed 80mile this weekend going nowhere really!

when i was scraping every penny i could to buy tools for my new job i bought a £300 ford mondeo TD (1.8) it averaged 50mpg, cost me nothing to insure, saved wear and tear on the mini and in general paid for itself very quickly.. was fast enough, frugal, practical reliable and did the job!

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

i found i have an amazing amount of extra money in my bank every month since i got works van, no insurance, tax or fuel to pay its defonatly the biggest perk.
maybe have a look for a car already converted to lpg to replace the focus?

1 liter corsa or a pug 1.5d 205?
they must have good mpg??

slow but what do you expect wit hvery good mpg??
also insurance would be cheaper i would think?

My build thread..

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=542985

Rover td's are pretty cheap, and good engines.
Something like a small 220 hatch

that said, the cost of owning a car will only keep climbing, until motorists bring the country to its knees again with appropriate demonstrations.

Edited by stevieturbo on 11th Dec, 2006.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

i run a pug 406 it has LPG and is cheap as chips to run, recent trip to brigton and back cost me £14 and car was weighed down and i was driving like a twat

I have a Renault Laguna 1.9HDi 130 with cruse control, i get 48mpg and 600mile range fully loaded.

Only down side is


Its French!!

Supose thats why one of the injectors went pop, stranding me in Durham on a Sunday afternoon with 180 miles to travel home.

FFS, get a 998 mini.

Stage 3 and megajolt and you can get over 50mpg.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Well. Durham is a nice place though. You could have been worse off :)

my solution to this is easy.....

sell the petrol car use the money to buy a diesel car

and then go to the asda or tesco run it on fat & or cherry if.... you can get it only using 33% fat and the rest diesel

and stuff the Chancellor !!! he gets enough.

then use the extra money your saving using the above to pay off your debts.....

think about all the taxes everyone pays in the uk
we are all working for the goverment

this is your chance to get some back ......lol

I can't see an increase of in the region of 10mpg which is what you would probably achieve by having a diesel being worth the hassle of changing cars; insurance; etc etc.

37mpg is bloody good to be quite honest, the real issue is the fact you do 64 miles a day to work, nothing is going to better your £45 a week by much IMO.

Turbo Diesel stuff can be quite economical but you do have to drive them gently to get into the high 40's and 50's TBH. Sat on the motorway below 80mph my Audi will do 42mpg, start hoofing it and you are very quickly down into the 30's.

your getting 37mpg out of a 1.6 petrol car- well done!!!. you can do some sums to work out how much roughly youll save. i rekon probably 6 to 10 quid a week? thats assuming you can get 50mpg! is it really worth the hassle of selling and buying a new car? unless insurance is a lot cheaper to.

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

I get on average 55MPG out of my chipped Passat TDi (142 BHP Superchips spec on original 110BHP lump). A friend of mine gets nearly 60MPG out of his similarly chipped Golf GT TDi, both cars '98 year.

If you can find a slightly older Passat TDi 110, previous shap, you will be in the high 50's!!!

My journey to work is 17 miles each way, 13 miles of which on the motorway, other 4 in traffic.

To put it into perspective over the same journey I get

Mini 1380 NA track car... about 23 mpg
Golf Gti cab (180 BHP switchable to 330) .... about 30 mpg
Porsche 944 S2 around 28 mpg
7 esq kit (Toyota 4age motor running around 160 BHP) around 25 mpg

Another example is a recent trip towing a MK2 Jetta back from Manchester to Cheltenham, trailer empty on the way there, averaged 42 mpg and both journeys during busy but none rush hour traffic.

VW diesels are awesome, the PD engines, although much livelier in standard form, aren't anywhere near as good on fuel. Speaking with my local VW specialist it seems that many people who chip the TDi110 have a permenant smile .......

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

my dads volvo v70 2.5 tank did 65 mpg in slow moving traffic 50-55 mph

My Renaulsport Clio 182 gets about 38mpg which I'm pretty chuffed with. Not bad for 180 brake. But what Tom said is spot on, with the mileage your doing your fuel costs will be high regardless. Hence why I'm trying to get my Dad to buy something tastey, he has a work van and now only uses the Rover for about 25 miles a week. Time for something American with a bent 8 I say!

I also bought a Clio 182-it was the worst purchase of my life

im always filling it up, but thats because it has a tank like a teaspoon

Edited by Nic on 12th Dec, 2006.

You got one too eh? Yeah its 50 litres or something. I fill up every 11 days or so. Mine is OK so far BUT as of the last 3 weeks I can hear a lot of noise from the belt/alternator area. Not too pleased about that. Still got 9 months on the warenty though. But hey it will always be French after all!